Traditional wireless networks include a number of base stations (BST) and one or more mobile switching centers (MSC). The BSTs each cover a geographic region, or cell of the wireless network and communicate with mobile telephones in the cell. The MSCs provide switch and soft handoff functionality for the wireless network. To support data calls, the wireless network includes a data interworking function (IWF). The IWF connects the wireless network to the Internet or other network.
Current wireless networks are optimized for real-time voice traffic, despite the growing demand for data traffic. For voice traffic, wireless networks typically provide call forwarding, call blocking, call waiting, star dialing and other services. These services enhance the utilization of mobile telephones and allow network operators to differentiate their services.
Due to the differences between voice and data traffic, many wireless voice services are not applicable to data traffic. In addition, service provision nodes for wireless voice and other telephony traffic on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) are not generally accessible to data calls. Accordingly, wireless network have no provisionable services for data calls, which are differentiated based on quality of service (QoS) parameters.